Call
by BunniesOfDoom
Summary: JJ gets sick right before the banquet, with unintended consequences.


Wrote this for a friend's prompt on tumblr; she really loves JJ and wanted more content for him, and since I'm pretty flexible with the characters I write, I offered to write something for her. Set post-anime. My first time writing JJ, so I hope it turned out okay. Enjoy!

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"Aren't you going to get ready?" Isabella asks JJ, leaning against the wall and crossing her arms as she looks at him. "Or are you going to keep having a staring contest with the dresser?"

"Huh?" Her voice jolts him from his daze, and he glances up to see her staring at him worriedly. When did she change into a dress? It's knee-length and shiny, a pretty green that matches his free skate costume. And now he's almost forgotten what she asked. "Get ready for what?" His voice catches at the end of the question and he clears his throat to avoid a coughing fit.

"The banquet, of course! It starts in an hour." She crosses over to his side and places a gentle hand on his shoulder. "Are you sure that you're feeling okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just give me fifteen minutes and we can go." Isabella smiles at him, reassured, and heads in the direction of the hotel room bathroom. He sighs and stands up, leaving the comfort of the armchair.

Right. The banquet. He's been debating whether or not to go all afternoon, because he's pretty sure that he's getting a cold, and the last thing he needs is to be gross and sick in front of a bunch of reporters. But they'll ask more questions if he doesn't go, and he's already been getting enough crap about his short program performance. He'll just pretend that he's fine, and try to stay away from the center of attention as much as possible.

He doesn't take very long to get ready (contrary to popular belief, he's not the type of guy to spend hours on his hair), just throws on the suit he brought and some cologne, and they head out. Isabella is chattering excitedly, and JJ lets her do most of the talking. She looks absolutely radiant tonight, the ring he gave her twinkling brightly on her finger.

He hopes that he looks better than he feels. He'd splashed some water on his face before leaving to try to look a bit less pale and clammy, and he hopes that the effort will stand up to the scrutiny of everyone at the party.

As soon as they get there, though, he realizes that this is going to be harder than he thought. He does JJ style for the photographers that lie in wait as they come through the entrance, but he has to fight the urge to frown and scrunch up his nose when it begins to itch. One of the ladies taking pictures is wearing a very strong perfume. Normally, it wouldn't be enough to bother him, but with this cold his nose is already sensitive and primed.

JJ flashes another blinding grin and makes excuses as he steers himself and Isabella away. "Is everything alright?" she asks curiously. It's very unusual for JJ to avoid attention.

He gives her a disarming smile. "Everything's fine, I just wanted to enjoy the party! Let's go find the others." When she turns around to look for the other skaters, he takes a second to scrub his nose against his wrist to eradicate the lingering itch. It's gross, but less obtrusive than grabbing a napkin or something.

The other skaters are standing in a loose cluster in the center of the room. The banquet hall looks similar to the one from last year, in the way that all hotel ballrooms look the same. Yuuri and Pichit wave politely when they spot him; Victor and Chris, standing next to them, don't react to his presence, too busy talking animatedly.

"I do hope that Yuuri is going to give us another show this year," Chris drawls, winking at Victor.

Yuuri whips around, his face turning bright red. "I thought we weren't going to talk about that!" he yelps. "Besides, I'm staying away from the alcohol tonight."

"But that's no fun!" Chris complains. Then he shrugs. "Oh well, I guess I'll just have to entertain myself."

Everyone around them is mingling, and JJ is happy to just sit back and listen for once. His throat is really starting to hurt, despite the water he grabbed off one of the tables on the way over, and his nose has started to run profusely. He has to sniffle every few minutes to keep from having to blow his nose.

Next to him, Isabella is talking with the red-haired Russian girl. Mila. That's her name. He feels someone staring at him from behind and turns around to see Yuri Plisetsky glaring at him. The younger skater shoots him one more pointed look before stalking off towards the drink table. JJ shakes his head and turns around to face Isabella again. What's his problem?

His nose has been itching and running all evening, so he almost doesn't notice the intensifying tickle until it's almost too late. He has no time to stifle it, just turns around and brings up a hand to shield his face. "Hekshoo! Hekshoo!" He's only partially successful at covering his mouth, but at least no one saw, right?

To his horror, he hears someone clearing their throat and looks up to see a mildly disgusted-looking Victor Nikiforov. Shit! "Sorry!" he squeaks out. Victor just sighs and shakes his head before turning back to his conversation.

JJ sniffles and decides to give in and grab a napkin. He can feel wetness on his upper lip. He feels bad about spraying Victor, but he didn't do it on purpose. Besides, it's not like he gave him his cold, right?

Traveling with a cold is miserable, but JJ is grateful when he's finally back home. His parents insist on him taking a couple days off to rest and get over this cold, so he spends a lot of time sleeping or surfing the internet.

His third day home, he's feeling mostly better, with only a lingering cough and the occasional sneeze. He's still a bit jet-lagged though; he's always had a hard time adjusting to the different time zones. So when his phone rings in the middle of the night, he's very unhappy about the loss of his precious sleep time. Sighing heavily, he grabs his phone from the nightstand and hits the answer button. "Hello?" he mutters sleepily.

"You Canadian bastard!" yells an angry, accented voice. It takes a moment for JJ's not-fully-conscious brain to recognize Yuri's voice. When did he give Yuri his number?

"Yuri? It's four in the morning." JJ winces at how hoarse his voice sounds. "And what are you talking about?"

"Victor! You got that geezer sick and he won't stop complaining about it! And it's even worse because Yuuri's out of town so he can't listen to his endless bitching! None of us can get a moment of silence around here and it's all your fault!" Yuri continues to rant, but JJ has stopped listening. He hits the end call button and puts his phone back. He doesn't have the energy to deal with this right now.

He'll have to apologize to Victor later, though.

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Thank you for reading! Please leave a review!


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